Monthly Archive:: October 2003

The purpose of this review is to provide some additional exposure to source-based Linux distributions in general, and Sorcerer in particular. We've been using Sorcerer where I work since January of this year and have been completely satisfied with the experience. Hopefully this review will give you a good idea of why we use Sorcerer, and it may move you to try it yourself. I'm no systems adminstrator, so if I can install and work with Sorcerer, most people with a little Linux experience will be able to also.

"Slackware has always been a developer's or advanced user's product. It has simplicity and speed. However, it lacks some of the tools the commercial applications have for administration. So you'll need an intermediate level of skill for this, particularly working with shell scripts to customize your boot configuration." Read the article at Linux-Universe. Here is our review with screenshots.

After two release candidates it is released the final version of Vector Linux-4.0. This release is based on Slackware 9.0 and the 2.4.22 kernel. It comes with auto hardware configuration and enough desktop software. The Deluxe version includes more software, KDE and Gnome.

Justin writes "Gamespy's latest Peripheral Visions newsletter takes a look at the latest Lindows release from the gamer's standpoint." You can read the rest here.

"Imagine this. You're driving along when a voice comes over your car's speaker system. "Your vehicle now requires its 10,000-kilometre oil change," the voice says." A reliable, embedded OS with this ambitious a goal could only be QNX. Read the rest here.

"Making a bid for a piece of the emerging desktop Linux market, Mattel, Inc. announced the immediate availability of downloadable beta ISOs for BarbieOS 0.99, and said it hoped the final 1.0 retail version would be on store shelves in time for Christmas." Read the "review" at DivisionTwo and look for Eugenia's review when the torrents show up!

Apple discontined its "Switcher" ad campaign a few months ago, amid speculation that it was not performing as well as hoped. Though we still may not see anymore stoned girls extolling the virtues of Macs on TV anymore, Apple has posted several new Switcher stories on its web site.

Analyst IDC just released its latest survey of operating system sales and market share. In obvious news, Microsoft Windows continues to dominate the desktop. Microsoft has also made huge gains on the server side. The survey does not account for free Linux installs, only paid versions, so the Windows vs. Linux sales figures are only useful to see who's making more money, however. Both Windows and Linux on the server side are growing at the expense of commercial Unix and older OSes like OS/2 that are being phased out.

Robert Szeleney updated upcoming SkyOS 5 with an accelerated VMWare graphic driver, a port of the Links text/graphics web browser (fully supported by OSNews.com) and some development fixes.

Microsoft has a little liability problem called Windows. Many are no doubt aware of a would-be class-action lawsuit launched last week in California. The suit targets Microsoft over security problems. The plaintiff is a woman who had her identity stolen. Details are here. (NYTimes, free registration required)

Heres a snip from the Gentoo weekly newsletter: Jose Alberto Suarez Lopez gave a presentation at HispaLinux 2003 where he demonstrated the load-time performance of the official Gentoo Linux 1.4 release. Gentoo Linux 1.4 for Pentium III, with and without prelink, were compared with a default Mandrake 9.1 installation on a Pentium III. The results - Gentoo Linux 1.4 with prelink did better than Mandrake 9.1 across the board, and even without prelinking Mozilla loaded nearly twice as quickly in Gentoo, and NetBeans loaded more than twice as fast.

As the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) countdown clock ticks down —at this writing, we're 19 days, 14 hours and 36 minutes away from the Longhorn stampede, according to one enthusiast's Web site — it's a good time to start separating Longhorn fact from fiction.

"When people say they don't have a choice, they often mean there is no other product that has all the benefits of Microsoft's products without having the drawbacks. Give it up. I would love to own a car that is as fast as a Corvette and gets the gas mileage of a Honda, but it isn't going to happen." Read the opinion piece at TechNewsWorld.

According to the Seattle Times Microsoft will make some changes to it's operating system and browser software due to patent infringements. The article also states that Microsoft will deliver Java support in its operating system a bit longer than previously announced.